


(like a) skyscraper

by senroh



Category: Naruto
Genre: Akatsuki AU, Angst, Brainwashing, Control Seals, Dubious Consent, Dubious Science, In my mind it's still a, M/M, Slow Burn, Uchiha Shisui Lives, but I may have to change that tag later, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 20:43:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15494271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/senroh/pseuds/senroh
Summary: Tobirama didn't think he would wake up again, but now he really wishes he hadn't.





	(like a) skyscraper

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blackkat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/gifts).



> inspired by a post I saw a long time ago on blackkat's tumblr about Akatsuki!Tobirama

_The scent of ozone and ink permeated the air, heavy with chakra and some other impermeable weight he couldn’t name, the familiar weight that he found came with every use of edo tensei, but this time it was deeper, heavier._

  
_From the base scent of cold damp rock, he surmised that he was deep under ground, only four others were in the room with him, and only one of them was familiar. His eyes snapped open but that was the only thing he found he was able to control._

  
_His body wasn’t listening to him._

  
—

  
Tobirama’s eyes opened languidly, the old memories of his revival still at the forefront of his mind as he woke.

  
The familiar gray of his walls in the main Akatsuki compound in Ame greeted him as his vision focused, a room they had given him when they were sure of their control over him, not wanting him to be too far away from their watchful eyes, and it was useful for them that he have a more permanent set of labs in the heart of their operations.

  
There was nothing on his agenda today that he was aware of, (not that he was ever given much notice for being sent out, and always with an escort) but he was  still expected to work on something that would benefit them.

  
He had, had more time to work on his experiments than he had ever had in life, and while a part of him was overjoyed for the opportunity to explore every avenue his mind could come up with, the rest of him was weighed down by the sorrow of knowing that his efforts were aiding in the destruction of the village his brother had made and the ideal of peace he had striven for.

  
In the beginning he had tried to sabotage their efforts, but with every purposeful flaw in his theories and techniques…

  
At first they had tried punishing him with torture, but with the technique they had used to revive him every pain and wound was short lived, another kind of torture in itself, but he was well-trained to resist torture, and his mind was a steel trap, fortified by his abilities as a sensor, and techniques he had made with the help of a Yamanaka he had considered his friend.

  
Then they had brought him Kagami’s grandson, a child only just graduated from the academy, and tortured him instead while Tobirama had to watch. Nothing permanent yet, but the threat had been implicit, and that was enough for Tobirama, whose greatest love had always been children and teaching them.

  
They had given the child, Shisui, into his care, and he had taught him all he could in between his experiments and missions. Not that the young Uchiha was allowed out of the compound to use those skills, but Tobirama would rather the boy be able to defend himself and perhaps one day be able to escape, and warn Konoha.

  
A knock at his door frame pulled Tobirama from his musings, and he looked over to see Shisui giving him a tentative smile. The boy, now a young man, had been with him for long enough to know where his morning musings had taken him if was in bed for this long.

  
“Breakfast is ready, shisho.” Shisui says quietly, and Tobirama hates that the boy’s once bright personality has been ground down by their circumstances, that he had to lose that innocence so quickly in this world that should have been so much more peaceful than the one he was born into.

  
“Thank you Shisui, I’ll be out in a moment.” He tells his student and watches as he nods and leaves before levering himself out of bed and into another day.

  
—

  
The labs given to him are the best that Ame has to offer, and were made even better with several of the advancements he had developed. They are well lit in all but a few areas that hold experiments that are sensitive to light, and pristine. Already Tobirama can feel Orochimaru moving around in the lower labs, checking on his artificial life experiments.

  
He was disappointed by his niece’s former teammate, the brilliant boy who he thought would one day be such an asset to the development of the village, having the same kind of endless curiosity and need to know as Tobirama did as a child, and now he was a missing nin, one instrumental in reviving Tobirama and imprisoning him at Madara’s behest to destroy all that Konoha had represented to the clans once torn apart by war.

  
Now the snake summoner was mostly placed to monitor Tobirama while he works in the labs, checking his work and making his own developments. Of course while Tobirama is more of a developer of seals, jutsu, and technology, Orochimaru is more of a biochemist, working primarily with organic materials, though his work with seals and jutsu is also quite advanced thanks to the resources he had to learn from, just as Tobirama’s knowledge of biochemistry is advanced just because of the many times he had to make his developments work with people and his work with Hashirama in developing proper medical techniques (because no Hashirama, not everyone can just shove healing chakra at the problem and it will go away).

  
The uppermost floors were devoted more to sealing, and he was always monitored more closely when he was there, and not allowed to take anything from them, in case he finds something that will allow him to throw off the control the Akatsuki have over him.

  
Instead Tobirama turns into the technology section, floors below the sealing floors. He’s been working on some interfacing technology that will allow someone to communicate across distances without having to connect to the technology itself, but he’s been having problems finding a signal that will work with the ambient natural chakra.

  
Hours later in the midst of a sparking mess of wires and alloys, Tobirama is distracted by Madara entering the room. The Uchiha rarely visits him here in his labs, usually preferring to send a runner to get him for whatever debriefing he is needed at. But Akatsuki’s illustrious leader doesn’t interrupt his work at all, just settles himself against the wall and watches him as he works his way through various tests until he runs out of tests to complete with this set of materials, and turns off the breaker giving power to the whole contraption before settling at the table with his notes on these experiments to write out the results and his theories on why they might have failed, and what he might test in the future that could give better results.

  
At this point Tobirama has decided to ignore Madara’s prescience, if he wasn’t going to tell him why he was there, then Tobirama wasn’t going to let him put him off his work, thought a part of him was hyper aware of Madara and his every action within the lab.

  
Finishing quickly, he glanced over at the time to see that it had taken him nearly the entire day to work through his latest tests and he had missed both lunch and dinner. Slightly startled as he always was when the time got away from him, Tobirama cast his senses out and found that Shisui was already on his way over to the labs to extract him to make sure that he got at least two solid meals a day and a decent amount of rest.

  
Gathering his papers into their appropriate places, Tobirama made his way to the door to meet his prodigy at the entrance of the building, when he was accosted by the very annoyance he had been ignoring. Shoved into the wall by the door, Tobirama only had time to open his mouth for a biting comment about how to get other people’s attention before his mouth was covered by another, and a hot tongue forced it’s way past his lips.

  
Utterly shocked into stillness by Madara’s sudden and completely unexpected actions, Tobirama was still slumped dazedly against the wall when Shisui popped his head into the lab five minutes later, Madara nowhere in sight.

**Author's Note:**

> so, my hand slipped and suddenly Shisui had maneuvered himself into this depressing situation, poor thing.  
> I don't know if I like how this chapter ended, but it was all it would give and I didn't feel like beating my head against the wall anymore, so this is what you get.


End file.
